Society's ChildS


Alarm Clock

Indian farmer decapitates cheating wife with sword, carries head to police department

Gareth Davies
Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 21:13 UTC
Narayan Singh
Singh, pictured carrying the head of his wife by the hair, arrived at the police station in India.
A farmer decapitated his wife with a sword and carried her severed head to a police station after he caught her with another man in one of his fields.

Narayan Singh, 38, was charged with murder after finding his wife Sarita, 28, rolling around with another man before he flew into a fit of rage, according to neighbours. Villagers claim the farmer - who claims to have caught his wife cheating before - took a sword and beheaded his wife and picked up her head.

Terrified locals claim they called police but before they arrived he walked five miles to the nearest police station - while clutching his wife's hair.

Singh, of Ghareli village in Ingoria, India, has been charged with murder and is due in court later this month. Local sources outside the station in Ghareli village in Ingoria, India said before he handed himself in, he told onlookers: 'My wife had broken my trust. This is the reason why I beheaded her. I had warned her twice before, but she wouldn't mend her ways.'
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Attention

Over 900 children killed in Afghanistan during 2016


Associated Press
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 19:00 UTC
Afghanistan war children
More than 900 children were killed in Afghanistan's conflict last year, the United Nations said Monday, calling it the most violent year for children since it started keeping records.

The U.N. mission said the nearly 25 percent increase in child deaths from the previous year was largely caused by mines and munitions left over from decades of conflict. It documented a 66 percent increase in such deaths in 2016.

"Conflict-related violence exacted a heavy toll on Afghanistan in 2016, with an overall deterioration in civilian protection and the highest-total civilian casualties recorded since 2009, when UNAMA began systematic documentation of civilian casualties," the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in its annual report.

It said 3,498 people were killed in 2016, including 923 children, and that another 7,920 people were wounded. The overall casualty toll was slightly higher than the previous year.
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Family

Workers' rights group says Labor Secretary nominee's company underpays employees

Anna Robaton
CBS Money Watch
Mon, 27 Feb 2017 19:15 UTC
pudzer trump labor pick
© Democracy NowAndrew Puzder, Trump Secretary of Labor pick
Worker advocates are questioning the fitness of U.S. Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder to lead the agency, claiming that the restaurant company he has led for more than a decade does not pay employees a living wage.

In a report, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) contends that "low pay" and "lack of benefits" at the thousands of fast-food restaurants owned or franchised by subsidiaries of CKE Restaurants -- which include the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. burger chains -- have forced many employees to rely on public-assistance programs to put food on the table and pay for other necessities. The estimated cost to U.S. taxpayers: $247 million a year.

Puzder's Senate confirmation hearing, which has been repeatedly delayed, is now set for Feb. 7.

A spokesman for CKE, which is based in Carpinteria, California, said that as a matter of policy the company doesn't comment on employee matters. White House press secretary Sean Spicer didn't respond to an email request for comment on NELP's findings.

To arrive at its $247 million price tag for public assistance to CKE workers, NELP relied on data from several sources, including public statements by Puzder about the number of CKE restaurants in the U.S. (2,920) and the approximate number of workers at each outlets (25), excluding general managers. Based on that information, NELP concluded that CKE's restaurants have about 73,000 "front-line" workers domestically.

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No Entry

Greece: Refugees mob-block immigration minister from camp claiming to undergo a hunger strike


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:48 UTC
refugees greece
© Aristidis Vafeiadakis / Global Look Press via ZUMA Press
Angry protesting refugees at the Ellinikon camp near Athens would not allow a visit by Greece's immigration minister on Monday. Some of the asylum seekers have declared a hunger strike last week. The incident happened at the entrance gates of the abandoned Greek international airport that had been re-purposed by the Greek government to house refugees in autumn of 2015. Footage of the altercation showed a small crowd of protesters physically blocking Ioannis Mouzalas from entering the camp.

Some punches were thrown between the refugees and the minister's police escort and the confrontation was threatening to escalate into clashes, but Mouzalas left minutes after arriving, Proto Thema newspaper reported.

Reportedly more than 200 refugees at the Ellinikon camp announced a hunger strike on Sunday in a protest against what they call appalling living conditions at the site. They say they lack hot water, baby food, access to schools for children and hospitals for the sick. They also complain that Greek officials would not come to the camp in person and would only communicate with them via Skype, according to a pro-refugee movement KEERFA.


Comment: Desperate people do desperate things, especially those who have nothing left to lose.

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Bullseye

Car belonging to Swedish police chief explodes in northern Stockholm


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 17:53 UTC
police car explosion sweden
A car belonging to the police chief of the Swedish city of Uppsala has exploded in northern Stockholm. No one was injured in the incident, but police are now investigating a possible link between the blast and the officer's activities.

The vehicle, parked outside the police chief's home in the northern part of Stockholm, blew up during the early hours of Monday morning, according to broadcaster SVT, citing investigators.

The police chief and his family are being cared for, and officials have launched a preliminary investigation on the basis of endangering public safety.

"We can't rule anything out just now, but we are working to try and find out what the motive could be for the detonation," Uppsala police spokesperson Lisa Sannervik told the TT news agency, as cited by the Local.

Comment: See also:

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Calculator

File your U.S. taxes early - guards against refund fraud


Epoch Times
Sun, 05 Feb 2017 17:05 UTC
tax forms IRS
© Brennan Linsley/Associated PressTax forms sit on a desk at the start of the tax season rush, inside the offices of tax preparation firm Infinite Tax Solutions, in Boulder, Colo.
Tax season is here, and while you have until April 18 to file your return, you may want to think about doing so sooner rather than later. Here are a few expert tips on why:

Identity theft

Filing early essentially beats criminals to the punch.

Identity theft is a growing problem and one often tied to tax refund fraud, said Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. Once your return is filed with the IRS, the information — in particular your social security number — is locked and cannot be used again by anyone else.

Steber suggests filing early to secure the information and your refund. It's one of the easiest forms of identity protection.

Faster returns

If you're due a tax refund, the sooner you file the sooner you'll get it.

Lisa Greene-Lewis, CPA and TurboTax expert, said that last tax season close to three out of four tax filers received a tax refund, and the average refund was about $2,800. That's a big boost to many households.

While some delays are expected this year for filers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Additional Child Tax Credit, the IRS still expects to issue more than nine out of 10 refunds in under three weeks from the day a return is received.
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Snakes in Suits

British VC war hero: "Worst travel experience of my life" after he was held up by US border officials during Donald Trump's 'Muslim ban'


Mirror
Sun, 05 Feb 2017 09:21 UTC
Johnson Beharry
© Photo: PAJohnson Beharry said he was targeted because he had been to Iraq.
Victoria Cross recipient Johnson Beharry has described his "humiliation" after he was held up by US border officials during Donald Trump's 'Muslim ban' .

The Iraq war hero arrived at New York's JFK airport hours after the president ordered travel restrictions on January 27.

Long delays at immigration meant he missed a veterans' event where he was due to be a guest of honor.

Beharry, who was injured in the conflict in 2004, said he faced a wait of nearly three hours to reach the border where his passport was further scrutinised.

The 37-year-old told the Sun on Sunday he suspected he had been viewed with suspicion because of his travel to Iraq and his appearance.

Comment: See also:

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Vader

HRW report: Saudi repression of peaceful activists at alarming high level


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:26 UTC
Saudi Arabia head chopping
A new HRW report documents an alarming rise in Saudi Arabia's allegedly politically-motivated persecution of dissidents, while detailing the cases of four activists either jailed or sentenced at the beginning of 2017.

The report says that a rise in allegedly politically-motivated arrests that began in 2011 has seen at least 20 dissenters receive severe punishments comparable to man-slaughter sentences in the West - 10 to 15 years imprisonment. The charges they have faced all seem to involve being disloyal to the king, in one form or another - "breaking allegiance with the ruler" and "participating in a protest" are some examples cited by HRW.

Comment: More on the US and Saudi "special relationship"

Successful Houthi Missile Attack on "Saudi War Ship" Spun as "Suicide Gunboat Attack".

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Blackbox

Desistance: The missing piece in the conversation about 'transgender kids'

Jesse Singal
NY Mag
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 13:33 UTC
transgender kids children gender identity
As anyone who has read much about the subject can attest, the discussion about kids with gender dysphoria — that is, discomfort with their body and the feeling that they should have been born the other sex, or that they are the other sex — can get extremely heated and tricky. Much of the controversy stems from questions of age: How young is too young to help a child socially transition — that is, to change their name and pronoun, and possibly the way they present themselves? To prescribe them cross-sex hormones to begin the process of physically transitioning?

For children with persistent gender dysphoria who are approaching adolescence, current best practice is to prescribe them so-called puberty blockers. Delaying the onset of puberty both forestalls the sometimes very uncomfortable experience of a child going through puberty in a body they aren't comfortable in, and buys them and their families time to figure out what to do. Sometimes, this eventually leads to the prescription of cross-sex hormones, and sometimes it leads to surgery after that.

Comment: Further reading: How Transgender Activists Got a Leading Psychologist Fired

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Nuke

Fukushima radiation levels soar to a record level as the media labels it a 'conspiracy theory'

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:04 UTC
fukushima
Radiation levels inside Fukushima Number 2 have reached astronomical levels — experts describe the 530 sieverts per hour as "unimaginable" — yet the political establishment and its corporate media mouthpiece insist on deeming those concerned about the catastrophe 'conspiracy theorists.'

March 11, 2011, saw a massive undersea earthquake spawn an equally formidable tsunami, and — as the world watched in horror — the wall of water slammed into the Japanese coast, knocking Tokyo Electric Power Company-operated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant offline.

Anyone who watched the cataclysmic situation unfold on live TV surmised the dire consequences of having situated a nuclear facility in one of the world's most active fault zones — and on the Pacific coast — but the cost in radioactive impact of the disaster has yet to be fully assessed.

That, for one, concerns Tepco's notorious penchant for underreporting and misrepresenting the fiasco that has been the cleanup effort; and, for another, the unrelenting campaign to label anyone rightly concerned about the extent of damage a tinfoil hat-wearing lunatic.

Both of those conditions must be resolved — particularly with the discovery of astonishing radiation levels present in the Number 2 reactor — because the world deserves the truth about the catastrophe and to not be denounced when expressing fears information about Fukushima might not be as innocuous as we've been told.

Comment: Tepco admits Fukushima clean-up could take up to 40 years to complete

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